Author & Journalist

Interviews

“So wonderful — Keep up these fine web interviews, Stuart” – RAN BLAKE, Pianist, Composer, Recording Artist, Educator and Recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant, former chair of the Contemporary Improvisation Department, New England Conservatory and currently faculty member at NEC

Tal Farlow Interview: 23 September 1981

Just before Christmas 2018 one of the finest documentaries of a jazz musician ever made found its way onto the Amazon video streaming service. Talmage Farlow: A Film by Lorenzo DeStefano, originally released in 1981, is a gentle, intimate portrait of the man they called the “Art Tatum of the jazz guitar.” Yet Tal Farlow […]

Big Jay McNeely Interview: 13th July 1991

On the 16th September 2018, saxophonist Big Jay McNeely died peacefully in Moreno Valley, California. There were few obituaries to note his passing; in death, as in life, true recognition of his very real contribution to the birth of rock n’roll had again eluded him. Most rock history books credit the first rock n’roll record […]

Mal Waldron Interview: 26th February 1994

Pianist Mal Waldron was both an icon and legend of the New York jazz scene of the 1950s and early 1960s. His playing can be heard accompanying some of the period’s most luminous names that virtually defined the cutting edge of jazz during this period, such as John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Max Roach, […]

Chick Corea Interview: 14th March 2001

Today, Chick Corea is celebrated as an internationally famous jazz star and an NEA Jazz Master. But should he ever decide to take time out from his impossibly busy touring schedule and sit down for a moment in a room full of gerontologists — medical specialists who study the ageing process — he could, as […]

Wayne Shorter Interview: 13th April 2005

Saxophonist Wayne Shorter first recorded for the Blue Note label in 1959 as a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. It effectively brought the 26 year-old to attention of the jazz world. Although he had previously played in the ensembles of Horace Silver and Maynard Ferguson and recorded for the Vee-Jay label, alongside Blakey’s […]

Horace Parlan Interview: 16th October 2000

Pianist Horace Parlan, who died earlier this year on 23 February aged 86, made his debut on the Blue Note label in 1960 with Movin’ & Groovin,’ going on to make a further six albums for the label including Us Three, Speakin’ My Piece, Headin’ South, On the Spur of the Moment, Up and Down and Happy […]

Nancy Wilson Interview: 5th November 2002

From whichever perspective you care to view Miss Nancy Wilson, she is a true legend of the music business. As the American magazine Essence once put it, ‘She is a jazz singer. A balladeer. She does cabaret, sophisticated pop, rhythm and blues. To say she is any one of these, or even all of these, […]

Alice Coltrane Interview: 3rd November 2004

In 2004, Alice Coltrane released her first new recording in 26 years, Translinear Light. Produced by her son Ravi, she succeeded in conjuring up the mystical spirits that evoked a series of compelling and hypnotic albums she made for the Impulse! label following the death of her husband John Coltrane in July 1967 such as […]

Al Jarreau Interview: 13th January 2000

Al Jarreau, who began a full time career in music at the relatively late age of 28, died on Sunday 12 February 2017. Hospitalised for exhaustion two weeks earlier, he had cancelled his tour dates on medical advice and had withdrawn from touring, announcing his retirement just two days before his death. Although he began his […]

Maria Schneider Interview: 24th January 2001

In the 81st Downbeat Readers Poll published in the December 2016 edition of the magazine, Maria Schneider’s The Thompson Fields was voted Album of the Year. She also topped both the Composer and Arranger categories and earlier in the year had topped the Downbeat Critics Poll in the Big Band, Composer and Arranger categories. As if that was not enough, The Thompson […]

Dave Brubeck Interview: 18th November 2002

Even if Dave Brubeck had retired in 1960, the year his album Time Out – which included the hit single “Take Five” – sold a million copies, his place in jazz history would have been assured. Instead, the Dave Brubeck Quartet went on become, according to Brubeck’s biographer Fred Hall, “The most successful jazz group […]

Keith Jarrett Interview: February 2009

In 1999, in a major broadsheet feature, Geoff Dyer, author of the critically acclaimed jazz novel But Beautiful, referred to Keith Jarrett (b.1945) as “The greatest living jazz musician.” It was not the first time, and it certainly will not been the last time, he has been referred to in such terms. He is, after […]

Sonny Rollins Interview: 10 September 2009

Sonny Rollins wrote himself into the pages of jazz history on June 22, 1956 with a series of nonpareil performances on the album Saxophone Colossus. From the moment it was released it was hailed as a classic. But for the twenty-five year old saxophonist it was just another session during a remarkable creative high that […]

Esbjörn Svensson Interview: 19th January 2001

On a warm night in May, 2006 e.s.t., which had begun life as the Esbjörn Svensson Trio, played Lyon, the third largest city in France. For the past two or three years the group, with Dan Berglund on bass and Magnus Öström on drums, had been creating a rising buzz of excitement wherever they played […]

Darcy James Argue Interview: 5 July 2009

At the end of May 2009, Darcy James Argue and the Secret Society played their first dates outside New York City. Their short tour of Europe included Amsterdam’s Bimhuis, Dortmund’s Domicil and the Moers Festival in northern Germany where I caught an inspired performance by the band. After the encores were over and the standing ovation […]